At 1am in a Hungarian military hospital surrounded by some very very ill people, rocking the baby as I tried to work out why the doctor wanted to perform minor surgery on my Mums minor cut to her leg I questioned if being a Mum is worth it. I am in Budapest to cover the swimming and diving World Championships for the BBC and true to form with me, day one has not been without drama!

I haven’t found the tree that grows nappies yet and I am lucky to do a job I love so I came here to Budapest with my four month old, where my Mum met us to play Nanny.

I wanted to spend as much time with Ernie as possible and ended up leaving home to late, missing my train to the airport. Instead my hubby drove me and ended up spending 6 hours in rush hour traffic around Barcelona. Louis first flight was straightforward, make the most of flying before they can walk. Ernie is hectic on a flight but as Louis is still feeding off me it was ok. He did throw up on a nearby passenger but she was miserable so she kind of deserved it. (Ernie once ripped near ring from a woman ear, she didn’t deserve it so I am keeping ‘pukegate’ in perspective).

Landed, checked in, hotel travel cot installed, Doona car seat/pram in action I headed to the final day of diving in my new dress, dusted off heels with a full face of make up ready to speak to the nation. Only, my Mum fell up the stairs cut her knee and got shipped to a local military hospital for stitches. She was mortified and felt awful she couldn’t hold the baby. I was like a duck pretending outwardly it was fine. Now if you have been misfortunate enough to see me on telly you’ll know my style is quite relaxed. I don’t necessarily agree with doing things by the BBC book but even I confess it’s not very professional to breast feed your newborn perching on a chair behind my BBC colleagues as they commentated on a world championship winning performance by Tom Daley. It was without doubt one of the finest sporting displays I have ever seen. He won in spectacular style diving better than he ever has. Baby aside (literally my female colleague held him) before he puked on some of the senior member of the swim team coaching staff. (Sorry Mel Marshall). I got down to business trying to send back links and interviews to the UK. I won’t bore you with the technical and logistical frustrations, we wanted to craft a new programme but had to send back what we had straight away for a highlights programme scheduled to go out the following day. As in many jobs there are ways you would like to do things and ways you have to do things. In the end as long as the nation get the opportunity to see and hear our young superstars do their thing on the diving boards its ok.

Celebrations and pre recorded links complete I headed to the hospital to help my Mum. It was funny for a few hours until they wanted to perform minor surgery. (Meanwhile hubby text to say Ernie has chicken pox!) Thank god for the linguistics skills of a young Hungarian volunteer and thank god for Adele from the British Swimming board for helping my family and staying with us until 1 am. Do I feel like a good Mum or a good broadcaster right now. Not really but ladies ‘having it all’ throws up the odd challenge and some days you have to just dust off your invisible crown put on your highest heels and be grateful for the people around you. The drama can be draining but I am sure we will all look back on this and laugh. Soon. I hope.

From a sporting point of view this weeks offers LOTS of treats. If we can match any of the 'pool' based drama of the diving we will all be happy. Tom Daley dived out of his skin to take the world title. Grace Reid can celebrate a silver medal in the sincere event and leaves Budapest fourth best in the world in her individual event. Matty Lee and Louis Toulson take home silver medals from the ten meter syncro. It wasn't to be for our Olympic Champions Jack Laugher or Chris Mears but those that know Jack believe this will only make him hungrier for the World Championship medal that will complete his set of international golds. On the final day at the final hour British diving delivered a hugely successful week taking home three medals, with the Daley double stealing the show. I feel pretty privileged to get to stand poolside and take this all in.

Much love. H

x

ps The World Swimming Championships are on BBC2 every day this week from 5pm. There’s brilliant coverage and interviews from my colleague Nick Hope online if you want to catch up with some of the excitement from the diving.

The post baby booze binge has been on the horizon for a while. I haven’t drank since last September and I am ready for a drink, a big one. Not because I want a hangover (lord knows I won’t be allowed a lie in thanks to a two year old who believes 3am is time to play football.) No, I need a drink because I need to find out from my friend what actually happened when my second son, Louis was born. My relatively new friend Jill, delivered Louis on our kitchen floor in front of a crowd of excited, albeit inexperienced french firemen. She was a total legend, keeping me calm, cradling louis whilst I processed what had happened.

Until about ten minutes before Louis came along. I was in the house alone with my twenty month old. I text my girl friends to say I was in a bit of pain: Erin and her five year old arrived for what they thought was a play date. Five minutes later Jill arrived with her one year old, then the fire brigade, then the baby. Meanwhile my eldest, Ernie hit me on the head with a plastic sword (he thought I was on all fours roaring because I wanted to play dinosaurs). It was, and still is a bit of a blur. I’d been for a walk, started having pains, tried to have a bath and kidded myself I could drive to hospital. All the time trying to call my hubby, who was in England for work. I crawled to the kitchen to open the door, but couldn’t get back up.

Thankfully Louis arrived safely as well as swiftly. Ten weeks of buzzing from the drama and the excitement it finally hit home how lucky we were when ‘Knocked up’ starring Katherine Heigl came on telly. I couldn’t watch it. I filled up and my stomach was in knots. I don’t think I have actually fully processed how amazing my friends were or how blessed we are that it was straightforward.

About thirty minutes after the birth I was in a firetruck on facetime to my husband, there are so many details I don’t have but I feel like I need to know. I know Erin cleaned up a lot of blood and I know Jill went home in my clothes rather than the ones she arrived in. It was all such a drama that I feel like it's taken me a while to get to know and fall head over heels for my newborn. I wasn't really ready for him to arrive, not like that. With Ernie I looked at him and he became my world instantly. With Louis, and I feel bad saying this, it was different. Everyone (including me) talked about the drama of the arrival rather than his precious little face for the first few weeks and for that I feel bad. I know he came out in the sack, I know I spoke to Ernie during the labour more than Louis and again for that I feel bad.

It's important to me that I fill the gaps in my memory of his birth. I need the intimate details. I want to know. But I know I will need a wine (or 7) to spare my blushes and reduce any inhibitions I may have about asking what really happened ‘down there.’ I think he came out in the sack, I remember feeling it, but the rest, between me trying to explain myself in french, get my husband on the phone and stop my toddler hitting me on the head well a few details got lost. Is anyone buying this excuse for a breastfeeding mum to get her wine on?

H

xx

PS Huge thanks to Mr Joel Anderson who took this photo in Perpignan. Look him up on Instagram, despite being crazy talented and interesting he has few instagram followers. ( I think we bullied him into an account in the first place!)

I thought the park bench in the playground in central Figures was the perfect place to breastfeed my thirsty one month old. Louis drank, Ernie played and I clocked up some me time in Zara. How wrong I was, instead the street sweeper shook his dirty broom at me and a pigeon pooed on my pram as I found out you don’t get your boobs out in the park.

I am not a militant breastfeeder, if it’s right for you do it. If it isn’t don’t. I am breastfeeding mainly due to the fact I am not organised: I would take out the wrong number of bottles, they would not be properly sterilised and I would invariably end up begging, borrowing and potentially stealing necessary items to keep my bub fed and watered. So, I breastfeed. After an hour in the car (we currently live in the south of france) Louis was ready for a feed and Ernie had earned some play time. I thought I had hit jackpot when I saw a car park next to a play park. I didn’t account for angry street sweeper who waggled his broom at me shouting as I fed. I genuinely thought he was telling me I had dropped something. My spanish is rubbish and I didn’t understand he was having a go, until he got near and after I had spun around left and right looking for the item I thought I had obviously dropped. In doing so freeing my other boob for all to see. (Which in hindsight is why the street sweeper got louder and angrier.) He obviously thought I was goading him, I wasn’t, but I can see how nodding, smiling and freeing a second boob may come across like that.

The thing that baffles me about this is that every time we go to Spain people fuss the children, and when I was pregnant they could not have been more helpful. They make allowances in restaurants (as my toddler tries to share half eaten chips with fellow diners). They let me queue jump, they smile and tickle and cuddle the babies. Often interrupting our meals or drinks to say hello to the children. Which is why this is so odd, perhaps it’s not a ‘spanish’ thing and just a ‘middle aged man thing.’ Or that particular man. I wasn’t trying to make a point by metaphorically sticking two fingers up to him but I inadvertently did.

I have friends who felt too awkward to feed in public, I have friends who felt to guilty to stop feeding even thought they had cracked nipples and bled. Stick two fingers up to that attitude! I won’t be adopting the Spanish attitude to breastfeeding but I will be sticking by the approach of my French friends and French mid wife: “If you feed, it’s better for the baby, if you don’t it’s better for your boobs.”

Not to be outdone by all my friends who seem to be training for a tough mudder or total warrior race at the moment, I recently signed up and took part in a beach-based assault course in France. I wasn’t fully prepared for what it would entail, though, and a combination of ignorance and limited French led me into one of the most intimidating challenges I have ever taken on (and I’ve hung out with marines!).

First of all, I didn’t know that you were meant to sign up to the event as a team and so I headed to the start line on the day of the race ‘tout seul’ and consequently found myself pushed into one of the smallest teams. I signed up because I wanted the exercise and I thought it might be fun but I soon realised that I was also ‘tout seul’ in that mindset. As soon as I approached the registration tent and saw the bandana-wearing, lycra-clad sporting set I knew I was joining a gang of serious sports men and women who were taking part for an actual time rather than a ‘good time.’

The course was 4km long and the obstacles included a cargo net to crawl under, a wall and rope to climb over, a couple of tunnels and some tyres to drag. I wasn’t the slowest member of my team but I certainly wasn’t far off.

Without a doubt the course was tough and running on sand even for the short sprints in between obstacles was draining. Dropping to the floor and crawling under a mat and through tunnels was tough on the cumbersome hot sand and my legs felt heavy from the start. In fact, I felt two stone heavier than I do on solid ground!

It was a warm, not blistering, day, but even so my lungs were hot and my face on fire. Still I stumbled on, determined to finish the course as fast as my limbs and lungs would allow.

Each team completed the course individually and the times of each member were added to make an overall time which went onto a leader board. I doubt I will see my fellow course runners again but I didn’t want to let them down and it’s surprising how the team spirit spurs you on.

All in all, this was far from my finest sporting hour, but it was definitely up there as a fun experience. The event I took part in is actually one in a series and although I don’t think I will join this group again I will certainly consider putting my own team together, with the joint aim of having a good time!

I recommend these organised events for a laugh, a challenge and a massive sense of satisfaction. And yes it may be hard work, but wading through sand is certainly a lot more photo-friendly than being waistdeep in mud, right?

As I begin to count down the days until the due date of my second baby, I’m starting to look less athletic when I work out and more like Mr Blobby on a bad day! And so I recently decided to head back to Pilates to find an exercise that would help me look after my body without the need to bounce my growing baby bump and burgeoning boobs!

If it’s hardcore Pilates you want, reformer is the way to go. The whole class takes place on a carriage – a low bed with a moving platform that you lie on. It’s set on springs so that you can add resistance depending on how much of a workout you want. The best bit is the straps, which feature loops where you can place your feet or hands depending on the exercise. To me they will always resemble something from the red room in Fifty Shades of Grey – and this will always bring a smile to my face and make a normally calm and tranquil Pilates studio a bit more amusing! To me anything that makes you giggle and takes your mind off a burning muscle or two is a bonus.

My class was taken by Celine Cipolat, a former ballerina and dancer with the Babyshambles who has set up her own Pilates studio in Perpignan. Like many studios the one I went to runs mat classes, reformer, group and individual sessions. The smaller the class the more expensive and so I shared my tutor with one of my friends. A class for two this way works out at £25 each. While it’s not cheap, I have found that doing private classes every now and again really improves my technique and sets me up to get a better workout in group classes.

We worked our legs, arms and backs, completing each move only a few times as our teacher reminded us the focus is on quality not quantity in Pilates. I avoided the ab moves as I am so pregnant and instead did some moving stretches on the carriage.

Reformer Pilates is definitely harder than the mat-based class as you need to concentrate both your mind and your muscles to stay on the carriage and execute the exercise. It’s very difficult to cheat too. If a move is aimed at a certain leg or arm muscle you literally won’t move if you don’t isolate and work that particular part of your body. The graceful nature of Pilates also means you think about your figure, posture and form, which can only be good for a hyperactive fell pony like me! The hour flew by and I left with that quiet throb in my thighs and arms that you have when you know you’ve worked out.

For me, reformer Pilates ticks a lot of boxes. Yes it’s pricey, but at this stage in my pregnancy I don’t want to risk any injuries and I’m picking up techniques and tips I will use in the future. It’s an investment!

I expected Lycra, conversations about predicted miles per hour and testosteronefuelled showboating about who had the lightest bike. But in practice, my cycling comrades who were taking on the Ride to the Somme with me – a 200 plus mile bike ride commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of the Somme – were a down-to-earth mix of experienced riders and complete novices there for the experience rather than the competition.

I joined the event as part of the BBC film crew and I can honestly say that this is my favourite kind of gig. The crew and I were expected to muck in like everyone else, which is exactly what you need everyone to do on a group charity challenge. I’ve done enough of these types of events to know that there’s no room for delicacy or judgement. I was joined by women who had only been cycling for a few months, as well as men battling posttraumatic stress disorder and even blindness – yet everyone completed the challenge together. Two hundred miles over three days isn’t a lot to a keen cyclist, but I’m a big believer in challenges being relative and some participants achieved more than they could ever have dreamed of. If you push yourself past your perceived limits, you’re a winner in my eyes.

I must admit, I can’t remember the last time I was on a road bike, but the route was relatively flat and once I’d mastered the gears on the swanky bike that I’d borrowed, I could keep up with some of the faster riders.

The final day was especially tough and emotional beyond belief, as some fellow cyclists visited the graves of fallen family members. Even if you have no direct connection to the battle, no one can argue that the death of almost a million young men is heartbreaking and beyond comprehension.

It was an honour to pay tribute to those who gave their lives by taking part in this event alongside riders who were raising money for SSAFA (a military charity supporting thousands of military families across the globe). Along the way, I was lucky enough to discover that my great uncle fought on the front line. He made it home, but he struggled with what he’d seen, which serves as a reminder that even when the war is won, the battle isn’t necessarily over.

You can see the Ride to the Somme on a Countryfile special airing on Sunday 13th November on BBC One.

As far as I was aware, Cumbrian wrestling is for middle-aged, toothless men wearing embroidered underpants on the outside of their clothes, but it seems that my memory is just as outdated as the view that wrestling is just for boys.

In fact, you could argue that this full-contact, traditional sport, which originates from the Lake District, is as progressive as they come – women earn the same amount of prize money as the men and participation among young women has reportedly been on the increase in recent years. All-female competitions began 10 years ago, but up until 1991 women competed against men. The story goes that when a female competitor beat a male in 1991, the men complained that they were being put off the sport. Naturally, I decided to give it a go!

The aim of the game is quite simply to get your rival on their back. The competition starts by shaking your opponent’s hand, before locking your arms and heads together in an awkward sort of hug, with your bum sticking out behind you. On the referee’s command, you wrestle, or, as in my case, get flung to the floor, legs over head, landing in a muddy pile or next to a cow pat. Yes, my masterclass took place on a field inside a ring marked by sawdust, which is how the summer competition is performed (although some bouts do occur inside, and training is often conducted at sports halls).

I was taught a series of techniques designed to floor your opponent effortlessly and painlessly by local wrestling expert Connie Hodgson. Most of these moves involve attempting to make the other person unsteady by sweeping their feet from under them with yours, or turning into them so you can throw them over your shoulder and onto the ground. Unlike Connie, who always managed to catch me off-guard and had me on the floor in the blink of an eye, I couldn’t quite time the shuffling and shoving right to successfully knock her off balance. Strength is certainly an advantage in this sport, but Connie is far from big and bruising, in fact she’s the opposite – with a baby-face, sweet smile and a giggle that threw me off as I didn’t want to hurt her! Unfortunately, she didn’t mind hurting me though, and after a couple of hours and far too many falls to the floor, I called it quits, sure that I could feel my brain shaking in my head.

While I can’t say that I’ll be signing up for the upcoming world championships, it was a refreshing change to get stuck in to a full-body contact sport where aggression is not only advantageous, but encouraged. One thing’s for sure though, I definitely won’t be sniggering at those embroidered pants any more – they’re a real life reminder that superheroes walk among us.

Once upon a time I kayaked big rivers and walked on high wires above London landmarks. These days I am bringing up my two little boys in France and working on programmes like Countryfile whilst trying to make as many special family memories as possible.

I hope you find these musings entertaining and at times helpful. Things are rarely straightforward around here from Louis’ surprise arrival on my kitchen floor in front of a crowd of fireman while my eldest son hit me on the head with a plastic sword, to unintentionally flashing my boobs to an increasingly angry Spanish street cleaner when trying to feed my new born son. ENJOY!

Lovely people. Lovely place .... not that I am biased at all..... 😜 thank you @hampsonwoods for the warm welcome, warm fire and warm pastries. Defo the best chopping board I have ever made. #cumbrian #countryfileincumbria #outdoorfashion #hampsonwoods #carpenters #countryside #bbcone

Of all the fun things I have been lucky enough to do in my job, my Mum is perhaps most excited I currently do voice over in the studios Emmerdale is filmed in. #offtowork #workingmummy #emmerdale #voiceover #whydomenhatesportsluxetrousers

New wheels proving to be a hit! NOT an ad credit where it’s due (and sharing the things that made my life easier).... I used @doonauk car seat when mine were babies because we travelled a lot. I am always reluctant to recommend stuff because people get sarcastic but my car seat on wheels definitely saved my back and my sanity with two under three. #babies #babyonthemove #family #carseats #THOSETHIGHS #triketime #babyboygrowingup

Funny how things go full circle...loved coming here as a teenager. Found it again in my thirties ....#leeds

Sums up our cheeky little man...... always chasing his big bro.... always going somewhere you shouldn’t. When you were born they called you “zen” baby. Now everyone calls you “smiler.” Crackers and we love you for it. Happy birthday gorgeous boy. #birthdayboy #oneyearold

One year of being your mum. Thank you for the adventures so far. The laughs and the love. I will always be right behind you little man. (In a supportive way not a weird over protective mum way. Ahem🤨🤨) #firstbirthday #worldie #babyboy #bestyearyet

Let’s go girls ... and Boys.... top night celebrating people who DO STUFF. Great to hear so many inspirational stories and hear about the partnership between @outwardbounduk @thenorthfaceuk exciting times ahead. #shemovesmountains #letsgogirls @annamcnuff @carlywilford

Neither a drinker nor a dancer but I sure give both a good go every now and again 💃🙈 #dancelikenooneiswatching #hopenooneiswatching #videoevidencedeleted

Oh for a cute pic of them playing nicely. #earlyrisers #softplaybefore9 🙈🙈

Action shot. #boys #toddlers #babies #family #3under3

Got pics of both boys as babies at this ground. Keep kidding myself they won’t be rugby mad 😂😂😂#asif #rugby. Thanks to the lady who suggested a family pic. (Egg pram still serving me well - not an ad just credit where it’s due.)

Bubbles. Besties. Baby chat. Seen a lot of life with these ladies - . #friendssinceforever #easter #itsraretheyhitsocialmedia #champagnekim